Grower Testimonials

Testimonials

“Last season Mountain Blue used a team of workers from Vanuatu supplied by MADEC under the Seasonal Worker Programme and we were very happy with them. In particular their pruning quality was very good…and 30 of them did the same amount of pruning, in a shorter time, than it previously took 50 backpackers.”

Terry Upton, Harvest Manager - Mountain Blue Farms, NSW

“MADEC has supplied field workers to Bulmer farms since the end of 2014. As vegetable growers in East Gippsland, located more than a three hour drive from metropolitan Melbourne and twenty minutes from the nearest public transport, it is difficult to source a reliable and conscientious supply of labour to meet our seasonal needs. Through the Seasonal Worker Programme, MADEC has selected workers, and assisted us to select them ourselves, from East Timor.

MADEC is a not-for-profit community organisation with a strong set of values but they also know how to run their business and have grown substantially while we have been using their labour hire services. They appreciate the realities of sales margins and have been transparent in our contract negotiations to achieve a win-win outcome. The cost of labour continues to be huge in operations such as ours so we look to maximise quality and productivity when outsourcing divisional parts of our workforce.

Bulmer Farms and MADEC now have an ongoing relationship which saw the return of our first group of workers from 2014 just this month, and our neighbouring farms are now beginning to source workers through this federal government initiative. We look forward to working with MADEC to bring about positive changes to make the programme truly attractive and sustainable for our sector all around Australia.”

Andrew Bulmer, Managing Director – Bulmer Farms, VIC

“I think we have found it has been successful for us because of returned workers who have come back this year, the efficiencies gained have been huge and the willingness of the individual to work. The return workers we got this year got off the plane on Thursday and they had to do government things on Friday and they went to work on Saturday, and we got them out there going.”